Bone plates have been used for over 100 years to treat fractures. As a rule, bone plates have two or more passage openings for fastening elements, in order to ensure reliable fastening of the bone plates to the bones or bone fragments to be treated.
Many bone plates have circular passage openings. The diameter of a circular passage opening is often matched to the stem diameter of the fastening element to be introduced into the passage opening. In this way it is ensured that the bone plate is stably fastened to the bone or bone fragment, by reducing as far as possible translational relative motion between fastening element and bone plate within the plate plane.
Some bone plates have a passage opening in the form of an elongate hole. Elongate holes are often used if the plate is firstly to be fixed provisionally to a bone prior to final fixing. A fastening element which has been introduced provisionally into the elongate hole then ensures a degree of initial fixing of the bone plate, but at the same time allows repositioning to a certain extent of the only provisionally fixed bone plate.
The object of the present invention is to propose a bone plate which allows advantageous treatment of fractures while providing improved possibilities for in particular intraoperative correction.